Romancing the Stone
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| Romancing the Stone | |
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| Directed by | Robert Zemeckis |
| Produced by | Michael Douglas |
| Written by | Diane Thomas |
| Starring | Michael Douglas Kathleen Turner Danny DeVito Alfonso Arau Manuel Ojeda |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
| Release date(s) | 30 March 1984 (USA) |
| Running time | 105 min. |
| Country | Mexico / USA |
| Language | English |
| IMDb profile | |
Romancing the Stone is an American 1984 action- adventure film. It also has many elements that might categorize it as a romantic comedy. Directed by Robert Zemeckis, it stars Michael Douglas, Kathleen Turner and Danny DeVito.
The movie was a respectable hit and earned over USD$114 million worldwide in box-office receipts and $36 million in video rentals.
This film launched Turner to stardom and reintroduced Douglas to the public as a capable leading man.
Tagline: She's a girl from the big city. He's a reckless soldier of fortune. For a fabulous treasure, they share an adventure no one could imagine...or survive.
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[edit] Plot summary
Shy, mousey, lonely Romantic novelist Joan Wilder (Turner) receives a strange package from her dead brother-in-law from Colombia. Soon afterwards, she gets a frantic call from her sister Elaine (Mary Ellen Trainor), telling her she has been kidnapped and needs the map from the package as ransom.
Hastily flying down to Colombia from New York, Wilder gets lost on the way to her destination, Cartagena. Eventually she runs into swashbuckling opportunist Jack T. Colton (Douglas). In return for helping her find her way to Cartagena, Wilder promises Colton US$375 in traveler's checks. He helps her elude key villains, the vicious leader of the secret police, Zolo (Manuel Ojeda), and a dastardly duo of zany bandits, Ralph (Danny Devito) and Ira (Zack Norman).
Along the way, Colton discovers Wilder's map. He tries to convince her to go after the treasure indicated on it. Wilder is reluctant, but after they become lovers, she relents and agrees to go after the prize, whatever it is (the map doesn't specify). They decide they can retrieve the treasure and give the then-worthless map to the kidnappers.
After some harrowing escapes, they eventually find the treasure, which turns out to be an enormous emerald about the size of a baseball, called El Corazon ("The Heart"). Unbeknownst to them, they have been tracked by the malevolent Zolo.
Wilder and Colton eventually get separated, but agree to meet at Wilder's hotel in Cartagena. Colton doesn't show up, which troubles Wilder, since he possesses the gem.
She meets with Ralph and Ira, her sister's captors, and turns over the map. They are interrupted by Zolo, who knows the map is now worthless. Zolo's men have Colten, but he has refused to disclose the location of El Corazon. When Zolo threatens to feed Wilder to the crocodiles, Colton hands over the gem.
At the moment Zolo obtains El Corazon, his hand (together with the gem), is bitten off by one of the crocodiles and a gunfight breaks out between Zolo's private army and Ira's men. This allows Wilder, her sister and Colton to escape. Colton chases the hand-eating croc, while Wilder and her sister just try to get away.
Zolo catches Wilder. Within earshot of Colton, Wilder pleads for his help. He must decide whether to save her or hold onto the croc which has ingested El Corazon. He decides to try to save Wilder by scaling a rock wall to reach her. However, he arrives moments after Zolo falls into a pit full of crocodiles). Seeing that the women are safe, Colton leaves to pursue the emerald once more.
Wilder returns home to New York, more optimistic, though lonely without Colton. She churns out a hit novel based on her recent experiences. Returning home one day, she finds Colton - wearing crocodile skin boots - waiting for her in a sailboat he purchased with the proceeds of El Corazon.
[edit] Opening Sequence
The first few minutes of the movie depicts a scene from one of Joan Wilder's novels, entitled The Savage Secret. An evil cowboy named Grogan (Ted White) storms in on a sexy damsel in distress named Angelina (Kymberly Herrin). Angelina points out that Grogan killed her father, raped and murdered her sister, burned down her ranch, shot her dog and stole her Bible. He threatens to kill Angelina unless she does exactly as she's told. "Where is it?" he asks. Angelina motions to a saddlebag in the corner. What is in it is never revealed. Now that he has what he wants, she tells him to get out. Grogan smiles. "Not quite." he says. He orders her to take her clothes off. Reluctantly, Angelina begins to unlace her skirt. When she finishes with the laces, she pulls back her skirt to reveal a knife strapped to the back of her leg. While Grogan is distracted by Angelina's chest, she kills him with the knife.
She then takes back the saddlebag and rides off across the desert. She is chased by Grogan's brothers, but her lover, the heroic Jesse (William H. Burton), suddenly appears. He shoots her pursuers out of the saddle. The couple meet and kiss. Then, Jesse pulls her up onto his horse and, in true romantic style, rides off into the sunset.
The scene then switches to Joan's apartment, where she has just finishing writing the story. Angelina never speaks in the scene. All her lines are delivered by a voice-over by Kathleen Turner.
Although the opening scene has little to do with the story, there are some connections:
- Many of Joan's fans say Angelina is her most popular character.
- Towards the end of the movie, during a confrontation with Zolo, Zolo asks Joan how she would like to die, "Slow like a snail, or fast like a shooting star." Grogan said something similar to Angelina. Joan also uses Angelina's knife-throwing tactic on Zolo, but she misses.
- At the end of the movie, Jack shows up in New York with the boat he's been saving up for. In honor of Joan, he's named it the Angelina.
[edit] Sequel
This movie was followed by 1985's The Jewel of the Nile featuring the same starring cast. Though it performed respectably, its success didn't match that of the original. A second sequel called Crimson Eagle was planned but never got past the development stage.
[edit] Trivia
- Although comparisons to Indiana Jones are inevitable, the script for "Romancing" was actually written five years earlier. Of the Indiana Jones-like pictures that followed in its wake, none did as well as this film.
- The script for the movie was written by a Malibu waitress named Diane Thomas. She died in a car crash shortly after the release of the film. [1]
- Due to the real-life threat of kidnappings in Colombia, the movie was filmed in Mexico.
- In the film, when actor Danny Devito is in the cave and pointing a gun at the heroes, he tells them to move out before Batman shows up. Danny would go on to co-star in the film Batman Returns.
- This was the first Zemeckis film to feature a music score by composer Alan Silvestri; Silvestri has scored each subsequent film Zemeckis has directed.
- The novelization of this film was credited to Joan Wilder.
- On the Back to the Future DVD Robert Zemekis states that the success of this film allowed him to make the first Back to the Future movie.
